NCIS: Judgment Day (season finale) - VIDEO
(S0518/19) Well, the previews didn’t lie. For weeks now, we’ve been told in previews and commercials — not to mention numerous stories in the press — that one of the principals would die on the finale of NCIS. The producers delivered; someone died. In one way, the death of Jenny Shephard, NCIS director, is the least painful loss, and also the most obvious. If you had Lauren Holly in the NCIS pool, you’re the winner. For most of the episodes since the return from the strike, viewers have known that Ducky had determined that the director was sick. Jethro knew it; so did Jenny. But Jenny didn’t know that Jethro knew. (Can you follow that?) Anyway, what it means in the big picture is that before tonight’s two-hour finale, Jenny Shephard was the most likely candidate to bite the dust.
Fortunately, the way the show chose to kill her off was pretty creative. It was kick-ass, if you ask me. Instead of wasting away from a disease that was never identified — but would have resulted in severe pain and loss of motor skills according to Ducky — she went out guns blazing. And kind of like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, you don’t see her getting riddled with bullets.
As the episode began, Jenny was in L.A. attending the funeral of a former NCIS agent named Decker. The cause of death was a heart attack, but Jenny knew better when she overheard a code word — Oshimida — which was key to an op she, Jethro and Decker had worked nine years before in Paris. She knew Decker’s death was connected to a loose end and she would be the next agent targeted. She reached out to Jethro’s mentor, Mike Franks, to track down Decker’s “insurance” — a McGuffin to the very end of the show — and in some ways, to make sure he would help her achieve her ultimate goal. That goal was not self-preservation; it was protecting Jethro.
Franks, wonderfully played by Muse Watson, was a welcomed return for this two-parter. In a show last season, Jethro helped him to clear his son’s name and get away to Mexico with his grandchild. His loyalty to Gibbs and knowledge of the spy game comes in handy. As a plot point, he’s also one of the only characters with whom you could imagine Jenny sharing her real feelings about Jethro. She told Mike that she gave up Gibbs and regretted it. He wasn’t part of her five-point plan. When Mike responds, “You’re still young,” the look in her eyes revealed that she knew she’d never live long enough to fix the mistake she’d made by losing Gibbs. Franks knew it, too, because he’d found her pills.
The first hour was mainly Jenny’s case, culminating with the shootout at the diner and her death. Ziva and Tony had blown it big time by allowing her to get away from their detail; they were assigned to protect her. It seemed throughout the show, they were always a step behind — and in the end, Tony was beating himself up for his failures. It reminded him too much of his failures with Jean and the Frog.
Back at NCIS headquarters, Abby and McGee were doing the procedural stuff, analyzing the data as they usually do. Abby, in her Abby way, sensed something was wrong. When Ducky received Gibbs’ call about Jenny’s death, it was up to him to break the news to them. When he turned to McGee and Abby, they looked like two kids about to hear the worst news ever — it played that emotionally.
Gibbs went to the diner where he crossed swords with Vance, the acting director. With Gibbs pulling the strings, meeting with Franks behind the scenes, getting Ziva, Tony, Abby, McGee and Ducky to do the work without consulting Vance, breaking all the rules to tie up the loose end responsible for Jenny’s death, he smokes out the killer. Jenny’s legacy is protected when the killer (Natasha) is killed — by Franks — and her body burns up in the director’s Georgetown home. The news reports that Jenny died in the fire. Everything would seem to be tied up in a neat bow.
Not so fast. Gibbs, Ziva, Tony and McGee are called on the carpet before the new (no longer acting) director — Vance. He lets them all have it for “going off the reservation” to solve the case. Ziva is told that the liaison with NCIS is being terminated; she’s going back to Israel. McGee is reassigned to cyber crimes unit. Tony is being sent to sea, agent afloat the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan. And Gibbs? Vance handed three confidential folders and told him, “Meet your new team.”
Whoa! What the hell? Didn’t see that one coming. What will this mean for next season, if you want to know, check out the spoiler at the end. If you don’t want to know, stop reading after the other points of interest.
Overall, this was a good finale. Lauren Holly was a good foil for Mark Harmon, and the sexual tension between their characters and the allusions to their past, brought something extra to the show. She’ll be missed. There will be no sexual tension between Vance and Gibbs, I promise you that. But Jenny’s exit does create a lot of conflict and that’s good for drama. So, I’m not happy Shephard’s dead, but I see why they did it.
Other points of interest
– The best one-liner was Abby’s. After seeing the cellphone pictures sent by Jenny for identifying, she shows McGee the five bad photos and says of Shephard, “A great director. Annie Leibovitz she’s not.”
– As if Jethro wasn’t already torn up about Jenny’s death, Mike tells him, “Her last stand was protecting you.”
– Before giving Ziva, Tony, McGee and Gibbs the new assignments, Vance takes from Shephard’s locked files his own jacket. He removes one page and shreds it. Was the contents of the page something Jenny had over on Vance? Was he destroying something incriminating?
– Decker’s insurance is absconded by Franks from the annexed NCIS files. When Vance later asks Mike about the file, Franks tells him, “You can read it. I’ll leave it for you in my will.” I wouldn’t be surprised if Mike uses this to help Gibbs down the line.
– Working with Tony and Ziva, Jenny was no-nonsense. Even more no nonsense then Gibbs is. When Tony calls her fearless leader, she says, “Don’t call me fearless leader” — and she means it.
– Mike asks Jenny why she called him. “I need someone I can trust and you’re on the short list.” He answers, “I didn’t know you were a fan.” Jenny explains, it’s Gibbs’ short list. “He trusts you with his life and that’s good enough for me.”
– Abby showed her emotions more than usual considering the circumstances. When she said she regreted not telling the director that she was a snappy dresser, she managed to get a smile from Gibbs.
Spoiler Alert!
According to our spoiler diva, Isabelle, Tony, Abby, Ziva, McGee and Gibbs are in the new season premiere. No word on Ducky or Palmer yet. Also, it’s still to be determined if the team is somehow back together in the premiere or if they’ll be separated for a while. What do you think? Comments welcome!
The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Dungeons & Dragons - VIDEO
(S01E06) This episode was a definitive step up for the series. I have one or two minor quibbles about it, but this episode has been the highlight so far.
The viewer is presented with the story of Derek Reese, who is Kyle Reese’s brother and John Connor’s uncle. This is done in the style of “future-flashes” in which we see Derek’s story post-Judgment Day and learn a lot of new information that answers some questions and creates a few more. I also got a little nerdy thrill out of myriad of references to the first Terminator movie (more on that shortly).
I should have recognized the set used for the Resistance shelter. Was the “Hang In There Baby” lion picture in the first movie? If so, I don’t recall it. I did like how they retouched the Linda Hamilton photo to put in Lena Headey’s image instead. It’s like one those time changes from the movie Back To The Future in which you see time changing around the travelers.
This actor change did not stop with Sarah Connor. Kyle Reese also changed actors for the future-flashes. No doubt Michael Biehn was similarly unaffordable. Thankfully, they didn’t show future-John (except for a segment at the end in a shadow that is obviously Thomas Dekker who plays John at 16). I think showing another actor as future-John would not have been good for continuity, which is shaky enough as it is.
For those who didn’t notice, there were a LOT of references to the first Terminator movie. The used several lines directly from that movie, including the last line “There’s a storm coming”. The future-flashes happen around the future-flashes of that movie. I do admit I miss the mountain of human skulls that were shown in the first movie, but there were probably budgetary concerns.
We now know what Derek Reese was doing when the Terminator attack from the first movie was going on. He was kidnapped (alongside future Andy Goode, who looks very similar to his young self) and used for some nefarious Skynet purpose which I could not discern. What was Skynet doing to those humans anyway? My guess is creating casts for Terminator bodies.
Notice that the Terminator keeping the resistance fighters hostage was one of the old style ones with the rubber face that Kyle referred to in the first movie. He described the type as “easy to spot”. I’m glad the producers of the show are doing their homework in that regard.
And somehow in the middle of all this is Sarah’s ex, Charlie. Charlie learns (almost) the whole story of Sarah and John. It would be a good send-off to the character but somehow I think he’s going to turn up again. Probably dead.
I did notice that the girl suicide at John’s school wasn’t mentioned in the episode, thankfully. I’m sure we’ll go back to it, but most of this episode dealt with the future-flashes and Charlie. Agent Ellison wasn’t around either.
Then, of course, there is the issue of Andy Goode. We now know that Derek Reese killed him, yet in doing so we now have another chronological paradox. If Andy was killed in the present, he could not exist in the future. So what’s the deal?
And the final coup-de-grace of the episode: what’s up with Cameron? They all but set up her own turn to evil in the future-flash when one of the captured Terminators revert back to shooting people and Cameron responds after defeating it, “Sometimes they go bad. We don’t know why.” In the next scene, she’s pocketing the CPU of the fallen Terminator. Is Cameron a double-agent of Skynet?
I liked the juxtaposition in the story of Cameron hacking up the Terminator from last episode while John is nursing Uncle Derek back to health. My favorite Cameron quote from the episode: “He’s not a guy. He’s a scary robot.”
So we’re left wondering what event will turn Cameron down the road of Connor-killing machine. My guess is that she’ll have sex with John and in a perfect moment of happiness will lose her soul. But I could be wrong.
A very good episode. I hope they’ll make more like this before its inevitable cancellation.
Terminator 4 Concept Art Revealed, McG Speaks
McG has posted the first update on the official website for Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, featuring our first look at concept art for post-judgment day Los Angeles. Click on the image below to enlarge. I think even the naysayers have to admit, it looks f’n cool.
But to play devil’s advocate: a lot of concept art for even bad movies looks cool. It’s also important to note that this is the first time McG has attempted to reach out to the fans to reassure them that his vision is not to ruin Terminator 4:
“Like you guys, I’ve been a long-time fan of the series and I understand your passion for the Terminator movies — and it’s my full intention to deliver a film that lives up to the previous three installments. I’ve spent time with James Cameron, spoken to Arnold Schwarzenegger, gone over the story with Jonah Nolan, and enlisted Stan Winston,” wrote McG. “Everything we’re shooting is designed to be tactile and real, you’ll be seeing a whole set of inspired designs you’ve never seen before, and best of all you’ll finally get to see some of the post-judgment day future that was only hinted at in the previous movies.”
McG also talks about the casting:
“John Connor will be pushed to the brink. And for me, Christian Bale embodies Connor’s strength and tenacity perfectly. And after visiting Sam Worthington on the set of Avatar, I know he’s perfect for his role,” writes the director. “As you know, Anton Yelchin is playing Kyle Reese, and his prep has been unbelievable. The guy’s been watching all three Terminators incessantly and he’s definitely going to capture the essence of the character Michael Biehn created in Cameron’s first film.”
The music video/commercial turned feature director says that he has already seen the first sequence they shot at Griffith Observatory cut together and claims “Anton and Sam are excellent.”
Discuss: C’mon guys, should we give McG a chance?
2012: A New Doomsday for Hollywood
Now that the millennium has come and went, Hollywood is looking for the next big Doomsday date. And they have found it. December 21st 2012 is the last date on the ancient Mayan calendar. Many have theorized that the day is the last day before the end of the world. The Roman Catholic Saint Malachy predicted that the last Pope would arrive in 2012, inciting Judgment Day. Some UFO theorists claim 2012 is the year aliens invade Earth (a plot also featured in The X Files). Some scientists also speculate that a polar reversal will take place on earth, and that “once the earth starts rotating in the opposite direction, natural disasters of unknown proportions may occur.”
So far Michael Bay is already eyeing a 2012-based Sci-Fi film. And tonight it was announced that Nickelodeon/Paramount has hired Tom Dey (Failure to Launch) to direct a 2012-based family action-adventure. I’m sure more Hollywood studios will follow suit.
2012 is written by Failure to Launch and Get Smart scribes Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember. The story follows a family who goes on vacation in December 2012, just before the infamous Mayan calendar is set to end.
One of Michael Bay’s next films is supposedly an adaptation of sci-fi author Whitley Strieber’s forthcoming novel 2012: The War for Souls. Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Star Trek XI) are reportedly producing and writing the screenplay. The novel is expected in book stores in September 2007.